SPRINGFIELD – In three separate rulings issued Monday, the state Civil Service Commission ruled Springfield Fire Department Deputy Chief Jerrold Prendergast improperly disqualified applicants for an entry-level firefighter position while his own son was a candidate.

Jerrold Prendergast File photo | The Republican

The commission ruled the three applicants, Christopher Benevento, Gelson LaGuerre and William Torres Jr., are each entitled to be placed at the top of the next Civil Service list when the city prepares to hire any new firefighters.

The rulings were dated Nov. 15, but not released to the public through the state Department of Civil Service web page until Monday morning.

The rulings were released on the same day that the City Council is meeting to consider revising the city’s required qualifications for the post of fire commissioner, currently held on an acting basis by Joseph Conant. Prendergast is interested in the permanent job.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed. I disagree with the ruling. The city has the right to appeal,” Prendergast said.

He disputed any suggestions that that his role in any of the candidate screenings cleared the way for his son to be hired. He also said the latest rulings from state Civil Service should not disqualify him from being a candidate for the permanent fire commissioner job.

One of applicants whose appeal was upheld by the state disagreed.

Reached for comment, Benevento, 50, of Springfield said the city “broke the law” when it disqualified him from being a firefighter.

“I don’t understand how Deputy Chief Prendergast can break the law when he is in charge of hiring in the Fire Department and there are no consequences,” Benevento said.

“If I break the law in my job, there are consequences, but he is still on the fire department to this day.”

Monday’s rulings are the latest step in a year-long saga involving the fire department and its hiring practices under then-Fire Commissioner Gary Cassanelli. Cassanelli retired in January.

Last December, the Civil Service Commission ruled Deputy Prendergast's involvement while his son was a candidate compromised the department's ability for a fair process, that he inappropriately conducted background investigations, and that there was "strong circumstantial evidence to suggest improprieties in the process tipped the scales" to benefit his son.

The same ruling ordered that Prendergast is not to have any role in background checks or interviewing of applicants in the next round of hires. Also the city must hire an independent review panel with no ties to the Fire Department to process applications, evaluate applicants and make recommendations to the fire commissioner.

In September, the commission voted in favor of an appeal by Louis Shelton of Springfield, ordering that he also be placed at the top of the next Civil Service list. Shelton was initially passed over because he admitted to one-time marijuana use in 2004, six years before he was a candidate to be a Springfield firefighter.

In two of the most recent rulings, concerning Benevento and LaGuerre, the commission found fault with the Fire Department’s long-standing policy of not hiring any applicants with felony convictions. The commission ruled the “no felony conviction” policy is too rigid and unyielding to have much value in candidate screenings.

As the commission noted in LaGuerre’s ruling, while a felony conviction may be grounds for disqualifying a candidate for a police position, “there is no such statutory prohibition relating to felonies regarding firefighter candidates – and the city has erred in effectively creating one.”

Benevento pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property in 1985. LaGuerre pleaded guilty to a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after he hit a man with an automobile anti-theft device in 1996. Neither served any jail time and each has avoided trouble since.

Benevento, 50, honorably served in the Navy, owns a house in Springfield and has worked for the last 16 years as a custodian with the city schools.

LaGuerre, 34, resides in Springfield and has been a decorated veteran of the Air National Guard since 2000, and served two tours in Iraq. The ruling notes that when the city sent him written notice to tell him he was not fit to be a firefighter because of the 1996 felony conviction, LaGuerre was on active duty in Iraq serving on a Black Hawk helicopter team.

He could not be reached for comment.

Benevento said he has been fighting the “no-felony” policy since 2001, when he was first rejected for the same reason. He said it was illegal then too.

He said that in 1985 he accepted a plea for two counts of receiving stolen property and received a six-month suspended sentence. He went on to serve in the Navy, earning an honorable discharge, and then worked the last 16 years with the city schools.

He said when he owned up to doing wrong, and accepted the plea in 1985, he had no idea that the case would dog him for 27 years and block him from his goal of joining the fire department.

Prendergast, who has served as deputy chief since 1999, remains a candidate for fire commissioner in Springfield, currently filled on an acting basis by Deputy Chief Joseph Conant.

The City Council on Monday night was scheduled to consider Mayor Domenic Sarno’s proposal to revise the city’s required qualifications for the fire commissioner.

Currently, the requirements call for the commissioner to have a master’s degree in fire science and seven years experience as a deputy chief. Conant does not meet either qualification. Sarno is seeking to lower the minimum to an associate’s degree and two years experience as a deputy chief, which would clear the way for Conant to win the permanent appointment.

As it stands now, the only person in the department who meets the qualifications is Prendergast.

William Mahoney, the city’s director of human resources and labor relations, said the Civil Service rulings were just received Friday, and no decisions have been made yet regarding any appeal.

Mahoney said he will confer with the administration of the Fire Department and the labor relations attorney for the city, before decisions are made on any appeal.

The decisions could be appealed to Superior Court, or there could be a motion for reconsideration by the Civil Service Commission, he said.

In related news, the Springfield chapter of the NAACP has stated, in a letter to Sarno, that his proposal to lower the qualifications for the next permanent fire commissioner is “a disservice to our city.”

“This decision smacks of nepotism and sends the wrong message to the entire city,” the NAACP letter states. “What message does watering down the requirements for the sake of a single preferred candidate send to the rank and file within the fire department, our youth, and city residents?”